


I Don't Much Mind The Fear

by LilianaSnow



Series: Pen [4]
Category: X-Men (Movieverse)
Genre: Anger, Anti-Hero, Blood and Gore, Bloodshed, Chains, Confessions, Destruction, Hatred, Implied Mpreg, M/M, Mpreg, Murder, Original Character Death(s), Original Characters - Freeform, Post Mpreg, Revenge, Symmetry, Torture, wrath - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-18
Updated: 2018-12-18
Packaged: 2019-09-21 06:34:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,581
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17038574
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LilianaSnow/pseuds/LilianaSnow
Summary: ...........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................





	I Don't Much Mind The Fear

Charles pulled Peter aside in the spring, sitting down with him and Erik.

"Hey. Um... How has everything been with Ben?"

"Fantastic. He's amazing and sweet and kind."

"That's good. I understand you two still don't know what happened with your pregnancy- where is he?"

"He went out. He's coming back, he says he has an errand to run."

"Oh, cool..." He sighed. "Well... Your secondary mutation, is, I'm afraid... Not exactly unique."

"What do you mean?"

"Your pregnancies. They're not the first time a man has carried a child- in fact... You're looking at the man who last recorded a successful one."

"Y-You?" he choked. "When? Who...?"

"Me. About nineteen years ago. You."

"What?"

Charles handed him a yellow envelope. Peter looked at him suspiciously, but pulled out the photos that were inside.

He found ultrasounds, medical reports written by Hank. He found a photo of himself in Charles' arms, the only photo he had ever seen of a hospitalesque setting for his birth. It was unmistakably him, though- he'd seen photos of the day he was brought home. He found a record of his birth health that his mother had said she'd lost. There were pictures of him as a little boy, with dates on the backs that said the stories.

 _He still doesn't know,_ written on a picture of him next to his little sister.

He found letters and records of his detentions, and he found his school pictures too. All of them.

"I'm... Where did you get these, my mom never ordered them?"

"I did," Raven said softly, walking in. "I ordered the school pictures and took all of them. And the aliases of the men who Magda was supposedly dating. Except in the case of your sisters. Your fathers really wanted their baby back, but... We were persecuted. We had to leave you with nonmutants until it was safe."

"Nobody ever knew, except for Erik, Charles, Raven, Magda and I," Hank offered. "I'm sorry we kept it secret so long."

Peter looked at the photos. "I... I need some time to think." He got up and left to go to his and Ben's room.

* * *

 Now, of course. All was not well, exactly, with Ben. He disliked Luke and the power he held.

Ben was not a violent man. He was slow to anger. It was a quality in him Peter had most affectionately loved. Yet, Ben had one dark side.

He was protective.

He had spent months feeling the fear that radiated off of Peter. The winter was over and Peter was seven months along, and Ben had left the mansion. He promised to return, of course, but. He had work to do first.

He stayed silent on the boat to the island. Luke had never been out of his chains since he got there. The only human interaction he had was from the guards. Normally, if somebody was isolated for their mutation, Ben would feel bad for them. However, not Luke. No. Luke didn't deserve pity.

He made his way into the enormous cement prison, watching all the guns immediately point toward either him or the small cell in the center of the building.

He walked in easily enough, looking at the man in chains. He had deteriorated to the point where Ben wanted to treat him, to offer him health instead. However, Dr. Benjamin McFalley was not Ben Maximoff-McFalley. Dr. Benjamin McFalley was not Drachen. Dr. Benjamin McFalley had a duty to people. Ben Maximoff-McFalley had a duty to his husband and his unborn daughter. Drachen had a duty to mutants who needed an example to follow and citizens who needed help.

None of them had a duty to Luke, the Papillon Mortel.

"Hello, Luke," Ben said conversationally, sitting in front of him.

"Who are you? What do you want from me?"

"My name is Ben. My business is a little more... Difficult, to explain."

"Ben." He huffed. "You're a mutant."

"Yes, I am. I'm called Drachen by the people I normally work with, although I'm not too good at fighting."

"Why not?"

"Well, I have a couple standard mutations- fangs, scales, tail. I'm a pretty good runner and jumper, bit better than the average Crossfitter. Definitely better than most people. But my own individual mutations are pretty useless on the battlefield."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. I'm coldblooded, need external heat. And I've got another neat trick for a doctor, not so neat trick for a hero. If I touch someone, skin to skin, I read their fears. Everything that they're afraid of." He bent forward, pulling off his glove and placing a hand on his cheek.

He felt the fear running through his veins- Luke was afraid of human beings, he was afraid of the guns they held. He was afraid of the sores in his wrists and the lumps in his back. He was afraid of being alone like he had been for almost three years. But, when he mimicked Ben's mutation, he developed another fear.

Ben.

Ben, who feared nothing except losing his family.

Ben, who feared nothing that Luke could accomplish.

Ben, who feared nothing that Luke could play on to toy with him.

Ben, who had seen every fear in the book and was never once scared by any of them.

Ben, whose polished silver claws were ridiculously hard and sharp as they dug into his cheek.

Ben pulled his hand back quickly, and Luke felt a spurt of blood spray from his face. Ben grinned foully.

"I've come prepared for the day. You're too smushed in here to grow my tail. Your hands are stuck in cuffs that encompass your entire hands. You can't possibly bite me with that horse collar around your neck, and besides- even my normal skin is too thick to pierce with such dull fangs as yours would be, as mine would be if they weren't sharpened regularly. And even if you could, I'm a dragon, not a lizard or a pit viper. As for my tongue, well... Easy to remove from your mouth, and as I'm not a lizard, I can't regrow my limbs and tongue, so... neither can you. See, I know myself, inside and out. And I know how hard it'd be to fight me. Why do you think I waited so long to come here?"

Luke looked horrified as Ben spoke. The father-to-be held up a bag full of things that Luke didn't want to see him holding.

"In fact, I think I'll do what you did to  _meine Libelle._ First, isolate you and remove all hope of escape- the guards here know why I'm here. They know I'm here for you. They're playing blind and deaf, though, they don't want me going after them. I might not be powerful but I'm smart, and dangerous, and very much a force to be reckoned with when it comes to humans." He smiled fondly, licking his teeth. "Which means, of course, I know you're isolated already. And weakened, after so long unable to run away and mimic. So step two- remove all hope of calling for help."

Luke opened his mouth and screamed for help, but Ben reached forward with tongs and pulled out his tongue. He stretched it to the full extent of what he could, and then he skewered it with a white-hot spike. He'd forever be grateful for the gift that lawn darts had existed. Luke let out a hopeless cry, and tried to morph his tongue back. However, pulling it back into his mouth scalded his face, and having his human tongue pulled it in past his lips and fried his taste buds off.

Helpless, Luke kept his tongue out while Ben took his sweet ass time poking a scalpel into the small furnace he'd carried for this purpose alone. The fire was welcome, albeit unnecessary. He pulled the scalpel back out and pulled Luke's tongue back. As much as Luke could mimic, the point stood that he needed certain things, and the heat was the opposite of that. Therefore, he couldn't copy Ben's heat resistance as he cut his tongue to pieces, then gently scraped the burnt surface off to reveal new, angry red skin. Luke sobbed as Ben poured salt water into his mouth and painstakingly sewed it shut with a similarly heated needle.

Luke glared at him as best he could through pain-glazed eyes. He looked almost pretty, Ben mused- he had decided that he could call himself that here because he was performing his personal duties today- with his mouth shut. He looked exactly how ben had wanted him when he had seen what he did to Peter.

"Hm. Silence is unbearable, don't you think? So why don't I imitate a villain and spill my story to you. See, of all the things I have, empathy for people like you is not one of them. I was raised around the ruins of a hateful society. I was isolated until medical school because of my tail and fangs. But I never let it turn me sour. No. There are far worse things that you have to do to bring out this side of me."

He leaned for his bag again, drawing out cut shards of glass. He held them to the prisoner's nose, as if considering whether it would be worth it to cut it off. He chose no and instead cut out a section of his arm, in no particular shape.

"You need to hurt people I care about deeply. I see it all the time. Big, bad abusers whose kids and lovers come in. I've learned to deal with fear and I don't feel it all that much anymore. Takes a lot to frighten me because of everything that I've seen while treating patients. But, hey. It's not like I go killing, no. I prefer to let the police handle it, usually- except they can't handle you. They can't handle the people dumb enough and brave enough to do what you did. I've ripped off another man's ear for trying to stab my sister. Imagine what I'll do to you for trying to kill your pregnant boyfriend. Surely you knew, with the amount of control you instilled in him."

Luke started to sob. If he had his mouth and tongue, he'd be begging. He pulled away as Ben lifted his claws to his shoulder and dug them in.

"See, of all the things that you shouldn't do, leaving someone like him broken, scared, and alone? That is the absolute worst offense! He's amazing. But of course, you knew that. So I think what I'm trying to accomplish here is the death of enemy zero, as well as defending the man I intend to marry. You know, he's heavy with child. My child, and his. I think I've got every reason to fear for him. For our daughter. For my patients. For my students. And, of course, nobody would believe you if you said I wasn't scared of you- you're what I would deem scary if I felt my own fear. But I don't."

Ben had reached bone, and he easily pulled away his hand. A couple tiny pieces of flesh clung to his hand and he wiped them away. Luke whimpered and tried to pull away, but his shoulder felt like it was on fire. He had already choke down the salt water sewn into his mouth and he felt like he was going to pass out. Ben paid no mind. He watched him until he had almost passed out, then splashed him with ice-cold water. Luke's eyes flew open and Ben grinned. "Not done with you, yet. No, I have bigger plans."

Luke jerked in his chains.

"Hey, buddy, don't do that. I have a lesson to tell you." Ben pushed him into the wall, pulling out a thin spoke. "I totally get hurting people because you're protective. But you aren't protective. You're possessive. You hurt Peter because you viewed him as yours. And sure, I want Peter to be mine. But he'll only be mine until he doesn't want to be. I won't hurt him for leaving me. I won't hurt the ones he loves. I'll respect it and cope with my broken heart by hiding away with my snakes. I will never- would never- hurt him or anyone else that I truly loved. I think you need to realize that people have autonomy."

He jabbed the spoke into his gut before pulling it back out. He liked the way the blood spurted, so he did it again. And again. And again. He left thirty punctures in his gut before tossing the spoke at his feet.

"I'd skin you alive, but you're a bit too chained, so I'll take mercy on you." He pulled out a belt- one he'd taken from Peter a few weeks back after catching him leave welts on himself because he was convinced Luke would forgive him if he did it. "This is your presence in Peter's life. Right here. This is what hurts him today, in the middle of the night when he wakes up and I'm not there to comfort him." He hit Luke six times, each with the belt buckle connecting harshly to his head or neck. After all six blows, he wrapped the belt around Luke's neck, pressing in and pushing in harshly.

Luke whimpered and struggled, but he was weakened and ill. Ben leaned in, knowing that he was mimicking Ben's respiration system, which helped him to breathe in most climates.

"Give up my lung mutation and you'll die faster."

Luke realized that he had been born with human abilities, and must die with them too. Ben certainly wouldn't go away if he didn't- he'd only stay there until he died, and who knew how that might go. He gave up all of the mutations he was copying, and Ben held him for another ten minutes, just to be sure, before letting him slump back in his chains.

 _Beautiful,_ Ben thought,  _is the blood of those who would act so cruel._

* * *

At home, on the news, was the act that Ben had done. Peter saw it and sat, waiting on the couch for Ben to return.

"Why did you do it, Ben?" he asked softly when he came in.

"Because he was toxic. He hurt so many people. It would have been a matter of time for him to escape."

"You spoke to him. What did you say?"

"I told him why I was killing him." Ben was a terrible liar- he couldn't even hide Christmas or Hanukkah or birthday presents. It was obvious he was telling the truth.

"You know that looks... Possessive of me."

"I'm sorry. If you want to- if you want me to leave you alone, I'll leave, Peter. But I won't force you to be around me. Not if you want me to leave." He had a tear in his eyes.

"Ben, that's not necessary," Peter whispered. "I want you here. But I'm afraid... Would you hurt me like that?"

"No, of course I wouldn't," Ben told him. "I wouldn't ever hurt you, Peter, you're so kind and funny and understanding, you don't deserve it. You will never go through anything like it, not by me, and I'll make sure nobody else makes you either."

There was a long silence as Peter looked for the tells that everyone knew Ben displayed while lying.

"Then come here, baby wants cuddles." 


End file.
